The Republican-controlled South Carolina House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to allow lawful firearm owners to carry handguns openly or concealed without a state permit.
The 90-30 vote brings the conservative state one step closer to joining 25 others with some form of so-called “constitutional carry” laws. The fate of the state’s latest effort to loosen gun restrictions once more falls to the Senate, where lawmakers rejected a similar proposal two years ago.
“This will open up options for families to protect themselves without a permit,” said Republican Rep. Bobby Cox, the bill’s leading sponsor. “South Carolinians can still get the training they need. But they don’t need a permission slip to exercise that right.”
Republicans passed the bill over the strong objections of many Democrats who said the move would decrease public safety in communities already ravaged by gun deaths. Opponents included one lawmaker whose sister was one of the nine Black churchgoers killed by an avowed white supremacist in a 2015 mass shooting at the South’s oldest African Methodist Episcopal church.
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